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Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Before Thanksgiving I submitted my votes for Top 5 releases of 2013 to About.com Heavy Metal. They should be posted, along picks from other writers for the site, later this month. I'll post a link to that article (which also includes things like my pick for most overrated album and best show experience) when it goes online.

But because I'm impatient, I decided to go ahead and post my list of the top 20 releases this year. This is the list I submitted to The Obelisk's readers poll, and of course, after I did, I thought about several other releases that I would have liked to include in some way. Among these are three that really deserve some attention: Seidr's cosmic doom opus "Ginnungagap," Satan's Satyrs' fuzzy freakout "Killing for Satan," and Wolvserpent's dramatic "Perigea Antahkarana."

I will say that I listened to (and saw) a lot of music this year, and still feel like I only scratched the surface of what's out there. That's why I would never call this list a "Best of," and why I really appreciate when folks email or message me regarding bands they think I would be into, because there's a good chance I actually don't know about them.

Show-wise, I was thrilled to go to my first Maryland Deathfest, where I saw too many great performances to list. I wouldn't have expected Pelican to be a fitting coda to the mighty Carcass, but they certainly were. Or maybe I was glad to finally be huddled in a tent after standing in the misty chill all day. Pelican also put on a great show in November at Local 506, after which I found out first hand that running over a stray traffic cone while doing 80 MPH on I-40 can really screw up your car.

This year I also managed to see Inter Arma four times, and would have seen them a fifth if I could have gotten my compadre to skip the Melvins at the Deathfest and head over early to the Baroness show. Twice they played with openers who made the show worth it on their own (with Earthling at Slim's in April and with Windhand at Slim's in June). But I think they put on their best performance at Local 506 opening for KEN Mode.

Then there was Hopscotch, where I got to see Isaiah Mitchell and Golden Void shred at Deep South (regrettably had to miss Earthling for that one), got day-drunk while watching Valeint Thorr at CAM, and saw Sleep rule at Lincoln Theatre. I was so terrified of missing Sleep that I was literally the first person in the door at Lincoln. Literally. I walked up and they just waved me on in as if they thought I worked for Hopscotch. About 10 minutes later someone came and grabbed me (standing by myself completely bored in an empty club) to make sure I actually had a pass.

As for the Pig Destroyer/Gorguts show at Slim's, I'm of two minds on that one. There's no denying it was a great show, and one that everyone who experienced it will be talking about forever, but it would have been great to be there without feeling like I was in imminent danger.

Take a look at some of my photos from all three days of Hopscotch here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3.

As for 2014, I am already looking forward to the Deathfest (especially for Ulver, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats and Triptykon) and seeing Carcass once again (with Gorguts, Black Dahlia Murder and Noisem) in Atlanta. In the meantime, here's my list of albums that dominated my iPod in 2013.

20. Lumbar -- "The First and Last Days of Unwelcome" (Southern Lord)
Teeth-rattling heaviness with Mike Scheidt, Tad Doyle and Aaron Edge. Check out "Day Six."

12. Gorguts --"Colored Sands" (Season of Mist)
The year's second greatest comeback album, released just prior to their crazy Hopscotch performance. Looking forward to seeing them again now that I've had a chance to actually listen to the album.

11. Cough/Windhand -- "Reflection of the Negative" split (Relapse)
Double dose of Richmond doom. This release foretold great things from Windhand. Still waiting for the new Cough release. About.com review.

10. Uzala -- "Tales of Blood & Fire" (King of the Monsters)
"Uzala is expansive and atmospheric, while still conjuring a witchy, vintage spirit." About.com review.

9. In Solitude --"Sister" (Metal Blade)
I admit to being late to the party regarding "In Solitude," but the song "Sister" helped me realize just how good this band is.

8. Skeletonwitch -- "Serpents Unleashed" (Prosthetic)
Skeletonwitch is metal's true workhorse band. You won't year anything truly mind-expanding on "Serpents Unleased," but you will have your fist in the air while listening.

6. Oranssi Pazuzu --"Valonielu" (Svart/20 Buck Spin)
This confounding Finnish blackened psychedelic band seemed to come out of nowhere this fall, with a sound that's as difficult to categorize as their name is to pronounce.

5. Windhand -- "Soma" (Relapse)
On "Soma," Richmond's Windhand transcends the vintage chalice-and-black-candles doomy sound and moves the initiation ceremony outdoors to create an atmosphere that’s natural, cold and forbidding. You get a visual sense of that sound from the album’s cover artwork: a stark, black and white photo of a lonely, hillside barn. Even when punching you in the throat with a groovy, wah-drenched double guitar attack, the music evokes that same sense of isolation, coldness and collapse. About.com review.

4. Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats -- "Mind Control" (Metal Blade)
Like their previous release, "Blood Lust," "Mind Control" album is a loose concept, this time involving death cults, motorcycle gangs and quests for enlightenment. The album kicks off with the slow, chugging “Mt. Abraxas,” which introduces our protagonist (antagonist?) as he escapes from the eponymous mountain after murdering his fellow cult members.

The story goes literally downhill from there, but is relayed with such fuzzy, sickeningly sweet harmonies, and thick slabs of riffage, that it sounds like the most wonderful story ever told. Uncle Acid’s double-tracked vocals sound like Alice Cooper, John Lennon and Ozzy are all fighting for his soul. About.com review. Mann's World interview with Uncle Acid.

2. Inter Arma -- "Sky Burial"(Relapse)
In addition to seeing Inter Arma live more than any other band in the last year, I probably listened to this album more than all the others on this list combined. From the very first second of "The Survival Fires," "Sky Burial" essentially grabbed me by the throat and never let go. Live, Inter Arma is a serious force, and seeing them as many times as I did undoubtedly made me love this album as much as I do. There's no link, but I wrote a profile of the band, which appeared in the March edition of Decibel.

1. Carcass -- "Surgical Steel" (Nuclear Blast)
No surprise here, considering how many accolades "Surgical Steel" has received since its release. This album is not only, in my opinion, the best release of the year, it's the definitive album of Carcass' entire career.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Demon Eye has been playing like crazy lately, leading up to the release of their debut album, which will be out early next year on Soulseller Records. I was pretty stoked to find out that one of my images (the Instagram from a show with Sinister Haze at the Maywood) will actually be on the inside cover.

Like that Maywood show, Demon Eye teamed up with Sinister Haze on Wednesday for a show at Slim's. Actually they played at least three shows together during Sinister Haze's swing through North Carolina on their tour. I was very interested to see Sinister Haze again now that they are a trio. I liked the vocal interplay they had between the guitarist and singer. I've also been listening to their just-released demo, which will be on my top 20 releases of the year (I'll have that list out next week). With the singer no longer in the band, the bass player took over many of the vocal duties, and honestly they were even better than before. They still have a few more dates on their tour, including tonight in Asheville, so check them out live if you can.

The night's big surprise was the new local band Corpse Mountain, which includes members of Church of Wolves. They describe themselves as "aggressive sludge/doom," which pretty much sums it up, especially the aggressive part. Looking forward to hearing them again. See more photos here.

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Disclaimer: Sometimes I get free stuff for this blog, though not as often as you would think (or I would like). Videos, photos and audio clips posted with permission.